Fruddled Gruntbugglies

Enthralling readers since 2005

Category: Coffee

  • Morning Brew

    • Beans: Lost Dog “La Esparanza” medium/medium dark blend
    • JX: 2.5 turns less 3 clicks (72 total clicks, or 24 on the grind chart)
    • 90°C water
    • 15 grams coffee / 180 grams water (about 1:12)
    • One new paper filter (pre-moistened)
    • Recipe: 13g that makes you happy (inverted: add 30g water, stir 5x, top up to 180g at 0:35, stir 10x, flip at 1:40 and press very slowly, finishing at 2:40)

    This is the same recipe I had been using with the German St Coffee & Candlery beans for the past week or two, with a little bit more coffee by weight. The flavor was just fine, but the cup seemed slightly weak, which I’ve noticed a lot recently with these darker beans. Next time, I’ll try 16 grams of coffee, with 35-36 grams of initial “bloom” water. I figure I’ll eventually either get it to the strength I like, or reach a point of diminishing returns where it will start tasting under-extracted.

    I’ve been pre-moistening the filter recently (with water from the insta-hot tap) because it helps to keep it in place when putting the cap on in the inverted orientation. I don’t think it makes much difference in the finished product.

    I found an interesting article that explains that darker roast beans have a somewhat short shelf life. That might explain why my recent cups have tasted weak — maybe the beans are just starting to go stale. If that’s the case, then I need to start buying darker roasts in smaller quantities that I can use up quickly, and also make sure the bag shows the roast date. Live and learn!

  • More Cold Brew

    I’ve been making a cup of cold brew, using this recipe, almost every day that I’m at home in the afternoon. Somehow, though, my bag of Wellsley Farms pre-ground breakfast blend never seems to run out. I still have a ton of it left. Today, though, I decided to shake things up:

    • 15 grams Lost Dog “La Esparanza” medium/medium dark roast blend beans
    • JX: 2 rotations minus 6 clicks (54 total clicks or 18 on the grind chart) for a medium to slightly fine grind
    1. Set AeroPress up in inverted orientation with plunger inserted about 1cm, and add coffee.
    2. Fill AeroPress to within about 1cm of the top with room temperature, filtered water.
    3. Start timer and stir vigorously for 1 minute.
    4. Flip AeroPress and press gently into an 8-ounce tumbler.
    5. Add a drop or two of stevia and stir.
    6. Add 2 or 3 ice cubes to chill.

    This turned out pretty good. I think I like it a little bit better than the cold brew that I make with the pre-ground coffee, but it does seem slightly stronger. It would probably be fine with 13 to 14 grams of coffee, although I’d need to be careful playing around with the ratio since I’m measuring the water by volume and not weight. I’ve been using the stevia for a while now with this recipe, as I’ve found that I like a tiny hint of sweetness with cold brew. A little definitely goes a long way — a couple of drops is plenty.

    Tomorrow, I’m going to try making a hot cup with these beans for the first time in a week or two. I figure I’ve got 9 or 10 cups worth of beans left, so I’ll see if I can get a good, repeatable recipe dialed in before I run out of them.

  • Niner

    I ran 9 miles this morning, for the first time since June 15. I was surprised that it had been that long, especially given the cool weather we had during the second half of June. Today, the temperature at 8:00am was around 70, and the weather was overcast and muggy. I got 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep last night, and had a smoothie, cup of coffee, and some water before heading out. I ran at a relaxed pace of 11 minutes/mile on average, and my form felt really good throughout. All things considered, it was a great run. I expect that my pace will pick up a bit as we get into cooler weather, and I am looking forward to taking some longer runs this fall.

    I used up the last of my “private house blend” coffee beans from German St Coffee and Candlery this morning. I bought these beans back in May. I used a bunch of them for cold brew, and also tried them in the French press, with pretty good results both times. After some initial failures, I eventually found an AeroPress recipe that produced a really nice cup with them, and I’ve been brewing this recipe exclusively for the past week or so, just in an effort to use up my older beans (plus, it was cool to be brewing consistently good cups of coffee with the AeroPress — maybe I’m getting better at this). Next on the list are the two bags of Lost Dog beans that I also bought in Shepherdstown in May.

  • Climb/Brew

    Today is day two of our predicted 3-day heat wave. In lieu of pool running, I headed to Movement for my usual Friday morning climbing. I climbed 7 routes, all on TR, with grades ranging from 5.10b to 5.11a. It was a reasonably good climbing session with some challenging routes, particularly the 5.11a, which was very crimpy at the top. I’ll probably swim in the late afternoon again.

    I had a $20 bonus card from REI that was only good for a week, so I ordered another pair of REI Swiftland running short tights. I bought my first pair back in May. I like the fit as well as the pockets, and they also seem to be pretty resistant to odors, at least in typical late-spring and early-summer running conditions. I’m thinking about also trying them for climbing, as I’ve had some chafing issues recently with looser athletic shorts.

    I’ve gotten fairly predictable with my morning brews lately, as I’m working on using up some of the beans I’ve had for a couple of months. I brewed this recipe again this morning, with the only change being that I ground the beans ever so slightly finer (2.5 turns – 3 clicks). To be totally honest, I didn’t notice much difference. It was a good cup — not the best I’ve ever had — but I do like that this recipe seems to produce fairly predictable results. Yesterday’s (exact same beans and recipe) was maybe a tiny bit more acidic than I have been used to, but not overly so. Next week I’m hoping to try pour-over for the first time, as I have a Hario V60 dripper on order. The first one arrived broken, so I’m just waiting on the replacement.

  • Run/Brew Notes

    I got out this morning and ran into Patapsco Valley State Park via River Rd., out to the swinging bridge, and back via the Grist Mill Trail. Although I bike through PVSP all the time, I had not run there in probably 15 years. It’s a route I had been wanting to try for a while, but it is 8.5 miles round trip, requires cutting through a school, and starts and ends along a road which is both hilly (downhill outbound and uphill inbound) and not pedestrian-friendly. On the plus side, 95% of the route is shaded, and over half of it is in the park. It’s not a bad route for summer, when school is out and there’s less traffic on the roads. Today, I cut it short at 8 miles, and walked the remaining 0.5 mile home. The uphill finish was not all that fun, but other than that, it was a pretty nice run. Once school starts, there’s always the option of taking the car, parking along Levering Ave., and just running the park portion, but that would only be 4 to 5 miles (unless I do it twice, which is an option).

    I brewed the same coffee beans and recipe this morning as I did four days ago, and as I was hoping, the cup tasted about the same. I’m looking for a recipe that gives me consistent results with a wide variety of beans, and this bodes well. I am wondering if I can scale the recipe for a slightly larger cup (say, 200 to 210 grams) without having to resort to using a bypass. A 210-gram cup would call for roughly 15 grams of coffee for a 1:14 ratio, and 35 grams of water for the bloom. I guess I can try it and see if there’s enough room for all of that in the inverted AeroPress.

  • Brew Notes

    • Beans: Local Coffee Roasting Co. Breakfast Blend (light roast)
    • Grind: Medium-coarse – 2.5 turns on the JX
    • 100°C water (full boil)
    • 13 grams coffee / 180 grams water (about 1:14)
    • One new paper filter (dry)
    • Recipe: 13g that makes you happy (inverted: add 30g water, stir 5x, top up to 180g at 0:35, stir 10x, flip at 1:35 and press very slowly, finishing at 2:35)

    Another in my continuing efforts to see if I can use this recipe as my “daily driver”. Two modifications for these beans: boiling water (vs 90°C), and 5 seconds longer initial “bloom”. This produced a pleasant, nicely-balanced cup which I would definitely brew again. It was slightly cleaner and milder than the cup I brewed with the French press a few days ago, with more flavor than my earlier attempts with the AeroPress. While it’s just fine as-is, I might try a finer grind some time just to see how, if at all, it affects the flavor.

  • This, that, & the other

    I brewed 13g that makes you happy this morning with my “Angel Albino Corzo-Chiapa” medium roast beans that I picked up on the way home from Bethany, after getting great results with the recipe with different beans yesterday and the day before. Everything was the same, except I slightly overshot and ended up with about 190g of water (the recipe calls for 180g). It wasn’t a bad cup flavor-wise, just ever so slightly on the weak side. I’ll try this again and try to avoid over-pouring (update — 180g tasted about the same — maybe try tweaking water temperature and/or grind size). I seem to get better-extracted coffee from this recipe than I have been getting recently with the James Hoffmann recipe. My last few cups with the latter recipe have tasted kind of sour and weak. Granted, this is only the third time I’ve brewed today’s recipe, but I have yet to get a sour-tasting cup. I’ve gotten great cups of coffee with the Hoffmann recipe, too, but not consistently, and I’m still not sure exactly why that is. My goal is to find an idiot-proof recipe that produces consistently good coffee with a wide variety of beans (with maybe a small tweak to grind size and/or temperature here and there), and I am hoping that today’s recipe will turn out to be it. Time will tell.

    Yesterday morning, I ran just over 10K at 10:45/mile, which is my first time averaging under 11:00/mile in probably a few weeks. I suspect it was mainly due to the weather, as the dewpoint was in the low 60s… still on the muggy side, but less so than my past several runs, and everything is relative this time of year. It will be interesting to see what my pace is like once we get into the cool, crisp days of fall. Later this week, we are supposed to have our first real heat wave of the summer, so I may end up running in the pool a couple of times. I hope I can find my flotation belt…

    I got out for a “short” bike ride of about 25 miles this morning, looping through Ellicott City and parts of Columbia. Along the way, I rode the Grist Mill Trail from the swinging bridge west to Ilchester Rd. Parts of that section of trail could use some work. There is one area where some of the asphalt has washed away, and several other areas with remnants of flood debris on the path. I guess that part of the trail wasn’t in the scope of last year’s bridge work. Perhaps they’ll work on it later this year. I don’t go into the park often on weekends, so just for future reference, it was still nice and quiet at 7:30am. I didn’t see any other people (other than a park employee) before I crossed the swinging bridge. I’m not sure exactly what time they open the gates, but it was clear they hadn’t yet when I was there.

  • Quick Brew Notes

    I brewed the exact same recipe as yesterday morning, except I used my Lost Dog “La Esparanza” medium/medium dark blend. The result was another pleasant, well-balanced cup. I’ve gotten mixed results with these beans using a couple of other recipes, with some success, but most of my more recent attempts have tasted kind of sour and under-extracted. That was not the case today. Whether it was the absolute best cup I’ve ever gotten from the beans is up for debate, but either way, this one gets the thumbs-up. I think I’ll try this recipe with another medium roast tomorrow.

    On a totally unrelated note, we’ve had a bunch of red grapes sitting on the counter for a few days, and today, I tried tossing a few into one of my smoothies. I didn’t think it would be very good, but it actually wasn’t bad. I noticed a little bit of extra sweetness from the grapes, but not much of a grape flavor, I guess because the other ingredients kind of overpower it. That said, I didn’t add too many grapes, so I wonder how it would be with more of them in there.

  • Brew Notes (again)

    • Beans: Lost Dog “Mocha Sidamo” (dark roast)
    • 20 grams coffee, 260 grams water (1:13 ratio)
    • French press
    • Gooseneck kettle
    1. Preheat French press
    2. Heat brew water to 85°C
    3. Coarse grind (JX setting: 3 rotations + 4 clicks or 94 total clicks)
    4. Start timer and pour at the same time
    5. 60 second bloom (including pour time)
    6. Stir a few seconds until grounds settle
    7. Steep 6 minutes

    I never thought I’d get to a point where I drink more than one cup of coffee a day, but lately I’ve been drinking two (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) mainly because I’m experimenting with so many different beans and recipes to find out what I like. I have had these beans for a couple of months, and I think I tried them in the French press soon after I bought the bag, but I didn’t take any notes here about how it turned out. This is my “standard” French press recipe, with the temperature knocked down to 85 for dark roast.

    Two observations: #1, this was not nearly as strong-tasting a cup as the light roast that I brewed in the French press yesterday with the same parameters. It was good, but I bet it would be better at 1:11 or even 1:10. Next time, I’ll try using less water for a smaller but stronger cup. #2: With the lower initial water temperature and the long steep time, it wasn’t a very hot cup. It will lose even more heat if I brew with less water. I read somewhere where there’s less to extract out of dark roasted beans, so it may be that 6 minutes is longer than it needs to steep. I may try cutting back to 5 or even 4 minutes, to see if it has any noticeable effect on the finished product. I could also try a slightly higher initial water temperature (say 90°).

    I think I am running up against one of the drawbacks to the French press — it’s not ideally suited to brewing single cups, because the long steep time leads to a lot of heat loss. This is not a huge deal if you start with boiling water, but starts to become an issue with lower initial brewing temperatures. So, I might want to stick with light to medium roasts with the French press. All the same, I think I’m going to eventually try these beans with 200 to 220 grams of 90° water and 4 to 5 minutes steep time, just to see how it turns out.

  • Brew Notes

    • Beans: German St Coffee and Candlery Private House Blend
    • Grind: Medium-coarse – 2.5 turns on the JX (the recipe specifically recommends this setting). This is coarser than what I’ve used in the past with the AeroPress, but finer than what I usually use in the French press.
    • 90°C water
    • 13 grams coffee / 180 grams water (about 1:14)
    • One new paper filter (dry)
    • Recipe: 13g that makes you happy (inverted: add 30g water, stir 5x, top up to 180g at 0:30, stir 10x, flip at 1:30 and press very slowly, finishing at 2:30)

    This recipe indeed made me happy. I followed it exactly, except I stirred 10x at 0:30 (which the recipe recommends if you want more extraction). It produced a cup that was well-extracted, not too weak, and not too strong. It was by far the best cup I’ve gotten from these beans using the AeroPress. One thing I noted was that the 30g of bloom water didn’t seem like quite enough to fully wet all of the coffee. I guess the initial stirring is supposed to take care of that. A little bit of coffee did get stuck to the stirrer, but went back in when I stirred again with the full volume of water. Whatever the case, it’s the end result that matters, and I really liked the cup. The true test, of course, is whether it will be good the next time I brew it. 😀